Republic of the Philippines

PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY

Camarines Sur

College of Arts and Sciences

GE1 – Understanding the Self
Module 12
Become a Better Student and Goal Setting for Success

Name of Student: ____________________________ Course, Year & Section:_______________

Name of Instructor: Maria Lourdes B. Aluzan

I. OBJECTIVES
Learning to be a Better Student
 Discuss the concept of learning its processes, changes in brain, behaviour and
metacognition.
 Suggest study strategies and self-regulated learning.

Setting Goals for Success

 Explain goal setting theory
 Identify the principles of goal setting
 Critic Bandura’s Self-Efficacy Theory
 Realize the significance of goal settings
 Create one’s life goals

II. LESSON
Learning to be a Better Student

The Developing Brain

There are some things that may help us to understand our ability to learn, and one
thing is somehow knowing how our brain develops. Here are some key point to
consider:
1. Children and Teens Learn Faster
During our childhood and teen years there is an increased excitability in the brains
compared to adults. At these stages, we are literally wired to learn faster. This is
because there are more synapsis(cells talk to one another) happening in the brain
at these stages of our development. This is because it is still forming pathways.
These patterns of connection in our brain are created when we learn something
new and the more a pathway is used, the stronger it becomes, much like the other
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PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY
Camarines Sur

muscles in our body. But if a pathway is not strengthened, the connection is lost.
As we grow older new pathways are a bit harder to make but during these tender
years, our brain and learning essentially is like sponge to water.

Our environment also plays a big role in our brain’s development and learning.
Synaptic Plasticity is how we respond and how we are molded by our
environment. What we learn during these stages whether good or bad become
our learning foundations. Dangerous habits like drinking, smoking and the like are
usually introduced during the teenage years as well. Ones who have started with
these habits during this stage, may find that they are addicted faster, higher and
stronger as all habits are a form of learning.

2. Maturation of the Brain

Full maturity of the brain is at mid to late twenties. It is the last organ in the body
to mature. This explains why during these stages we are highly impressionable,
both to good and bad things. The connections starts from the back towards the
front. The last part to connect to is the frontal lobe which is in charge of
judgement, impulse control, decision making, and empathy.

During these stages we have the ability to boost our learning and lay down good
and strong foundations for the future. At the same time, knowing that there are
still some parts in our brain that are not yet fully developed, we must be more
careful with our decisions and actions as well.

Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Piaget was a Swiss Psychologist that created a theory of man’s development focusing
on learning. His theory states that there are 4 stages of cognitive development in a
fixed order.

EACH STAGE - different quantity of information,

different quality of knowledge, and
understanding as well

How do you proceed to the next stage of development?

 appropriate level of maturation
 exposed to relevant types of experiences

He believed that we cannot skip a stage. He also assumed that without having relevant
experiences, children cannot reach their highest level of cognitive growth.
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PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY
Camarines Sur

Stages of Cognitive Development

For us to better understand the distinction of these stages particularly

the last two, let us look at “The Pendulum Problem”:

What determines how fast a pendulum swings?

OPTIONS:
A. Length of the string?
B. Weight of the pendulum?
C. Force with which the pendulum is pushed?

Concrete Operational Formal Operational

• Approach the problem without a
logical or rational plan of action
• they examine the effects of changes
from all three variables at the same
time
• Because they are varying all the
factors at once, they cannot tell
which factor is the critical one
• Approach the problem systematically
• they examine the effects of changes
in one variable one at a time
• This ability to rule out competing
possibilities characterizes formal
operational thought
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PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY
Camarines Sur

The formal operational stage produces a new kind of thinking that is abstract,
formal, and logical. Thinking is no longer tied to events that individuals observe in
the environment but makes use of logical techniques to resolve problems.

Unfortunate Facts:
• Although formal operational thought emerges during the teenage years, some
individuals use this type of thinking only infrequently.
• Many individuals never reach this stage at all; most studies show that only 40 to
60 percent of college students and adults fully reach it, with some estimates
running as low as 25 percent of the general population.

To move on and reach the formal operational stage is possible, but for this to
happen we have to make a continuous effort and make use of logical techniques as
often as we can as it is in practicing it more do we strengthen and attain it.

Information-Processing Approach
It is the way in which people take in, use, and store information. There are
quantitative changes that occur in children’s ability to organize and manipulate
information.
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PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY
Camarines Sur

Age and Information-Processing

Our capability to process and retain information improves as we age as we learn how
to help ourselves retain information, here are some significant changes that happen:
 speed of processing as some abilities become more automatic.
 attention to stimuli longer and discriminate between different stimuli more
readily, and they are less easily distracted
 memory also improves dramatically

With this theory, we see that along the path to learning there are many instances
that an information can be lost. With this it is up to us how best we can retain it.

Lev Vygotsky’s Social Aspects of Learning

The culture in which we are raised significantly affects our cognitive development.
We cannot understand cognitive development without taking into account the social
aspects of learning.

How do we learn?
This occurs as a consequence of social interactions in which children and others work
together to solve problems.

What can we do if something is

beyond what we can do now?
When encountering information
that falls within their zone of
proximal development (ZPD) -
the level at which a child can
almost, but not fully,
comprehend or perform a task
on his or her own. He/ she
should ask for or look for help to
be able to reach the next step.
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PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY
Camarines Sur

When Task is Outside of ZPD

Although the performances of
the two children initially
working at a task without aid
are similar, the second child
benefits more from aid and
thus has a larger zone of
proximal development (ZPD).

Scaffolding
A type of assistance that encourages cognitive development when parents, teachers,
or skilled peers assist a child by presenting information that is both new and within
the ZPD.
 provides support for learning and problem solving
 encourages independence and growth

Learning Techniques:
A research has been done to compare several learning techniques that can easily be
adapted and are commonly used by students. The following are the techniques:
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PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY
Camarines Sur

This graph has looked into different

techniques that can be used by students to
study and the timing of the exam
(immediate or delayed).
With this data, we can say that:
 There is a decrease in performance
when the test was delayed for all
techniques used
 Among all the techniques for both
immediate and delayed test, the most
effective seems to be note-taking and
summarization

Writing about the important points in

one’s own words produced a benefit over
and above that of selecting important
information; students benefited from the
more active processing involved in
summarization and note-taking.

Metacognition
 An awareness and understanding of one’s own cognitive processes.
 It involves the planning, monitoring, and revising of cognitive strategies.

The key is to put in the EFFORT to learn better. One way is finding out how best we
learn. Example, if you find that hearing yourself read makes it easier for you then
do it, or maybe there has to be music playing while you study or perhaps you like
to make charts or diagrams to make sense of it all. It is also important to know what
TIME of the day or night are you most productive and how you can maximize that.
Find you’re MOTIVATION, when you find yourself about to quit, ask why you are
doing it in the first place; or perhaps you can let it go today but try again tomorrow.
Knowing when to REST is also important, we work best both physically and mentally
when we are well rested. Each one of us has different ways to learn, find yours.

It is a time to LEARN, your brain is at its maximum capacity so feed it with QUANTITY
INFORMATION, QUALITY KNOWLEDGE AND SYSTEMATICAL IDEAS. DISCOVER
yourself and the world around you WITH THE PEOPLE worthy of your trust and
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PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY
Camarines Sur

always with the guidance of your family. YOU ARE NOT ALONE, THERE IS NOTHING
WRONG WITH ASKING FOR HELP SOMETIMES.

Bandura’s Self Efficacy and Goal Setting

Perceived self-efficacy is defined as people's beliefs about their capabilities to produce
designated levels of performance that exercise influence over events that affect their
lives. Selfefficacy beliefs determine how people feel, think, motivate themselves and
behave. Such beliefs produce these diverse effects through four major processes. They
include cognitive, motivational, affective and selection processes.

A strong sense of efficacy enhances human accomplishment and personal well-being

in many ways. People with high assurance in their capabilities approach difficult tasks
as challenges to be mastered rather than as threats to be avoided. Such an efficacious
outlook fosters intrinsic interest and deep engrossment in activities. They set
themselves challenging goals and maintain strong commitment to them. They heighten
and sustain their efforts in the face of failure. They quickly recover their sense of
efficacy after failures or setbacks. They attribute failure to insufficient effort or
deficient knowledge and skills which are acquirable. They approach threatening
situations with assurance that they can exercise control over them. Such an efficacious
outlook produces personal accomplishments, reduces stress and lowers
vulnerability to depression.

In contrast, people who doubt their capabilities shy away from difficult tasks which
they view as personal threats. They have low aspirations and weak commitment to the
goals they choose to pursue. When faced with difficult tasks, they dwell on their
personal deficiencies, on the obstacles they will encounter, and all kinds of adverse
outcomes rather than concentrate on how to perform successfully. They slacken their
efforts and give up quickly in the face of difficulties. They are slow to recover their
sense of efficacy following failure or setbacks. Because they view insufficient
performance as deficient aptitude it does not require much failure for them to lose faith
in their capabilities. They fall easy victim to stress and depression.

Sources of Self-Efficacy
People's beliefs about their efficacy can be developed by four main sources of
influence. The most effective way of creating a strong sense of efficacy is through
mastery experiences. Successes build a robust belief in one's personal efficacy.
Failures undermine it, especially if failures occur before a sense of efficacy is firmly
established.

If people experience only easy successes they come to expect quick results and are
easily discouraged by failure. A resilient sense of efficacy requires experience in
overcoming obstacles through perseverant effort. Some setbacks and difficulties in
human pursuits serve a useful purpose in teaching that success usually requires
sustained effort. After people become convinced they have what it takes to succeed,
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PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY
Camarines Sur

they persevere in the face of adversity and quickly rebound from setbacks. By sticking
it out through tough times, they emerge stronger from adversity.

The second way of creating and strengthening self-beliefs of efficacy is through the
vicarious experiences provided by social models. Seeing people similar to oneself
succeed by sustained effort raises observers' beliefs that they too possess the
capabilities master comparable activities to succeed. By the same token, observing
others' fail despite high effort lowers observers' judgments of their own efficacy and
undermines their efforts. The impact of modelling on perceived self-efficacy is
strongly influenced by perceived similarity to the models. The greater the assumed
similarity the more persuasive are the models' successes and failures. If people see the
models as very different from themselves their perceived self-efficacy is not much
influenced by the models' behavior and the results its produces.

Modeling influences do more than provide a social standard against which to judge
one's own capabilities. People seek proficient models who possess the competencies
to which they aspire. Through their behavior and expressed ways of thinking,
competent models transmit knowledge and teach observers effective skills and
strategies for managing environmental demands. Acquisition of better means raises
perceived self-efficacy.

Social persuasion is a third way of strengthening people's beliefs that they have what
it takes to succeed. People who are persuaded verbally that they possess the capabilities
to master given activities are likely to mobilize greater effort and sustain it than if they
harbor self-doubts and dwell on personal deficiencies when problems arise. To the
extent that persuasive boosts in perceived self-efficacy lead people to try hard enough
to succeed, they promote development of skills and a sense of personal efficacy.

It is more difficult to instill high beliefs of personal efficacy by social persuasion alone
than to undermine it. Unrealistic boosts in efficacy are quickly disconfirmed by
disappointing results of one's efforts. But people who have been persuaded that they
lack capabilities tend to avoid challenging activities that cultivate potentialities and
give up quickly in the face of difficulties. By constricting activities and undermining
motivation, disbelief in one's capabilities creates its own behavioral validation.

Successful efficacy builders do more than convey positive appraisals. In addition to

raising people's beliefs in their capabilities, they structure situations for them in ways
that bring success and avoid placing people in situations prematurely where they are
likely to fail often. They measure success in terms of self-improvement rather than by
triumphs over others.

People also rely partly on their somatic and emotional states in judging their
capabilities. They interpret their stress reactions and tension as signs of vulnerability
to poor performance. In activities involving strength and stamina, people judge their
fatigue, aches and pains as signs of physical debility. Mood also affects people's
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PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY
Camarines Sur

judgments of their personal efficacy. Positive mood enhances perceived self-efficacy,

despondent mood diminishes it. The fourth way of modifying self-beliefs of efficacy
is to reduce people's stress reactions and alter their negative emotional proclivities and
misinterpretations of their physical states.

It is not the sheer intensity of emotional and physical reactions that is important but
rather how they are perceived and interpreted. People who have a high sense of
efficacy are likely to view their state of affective arousal as an energizing facilitator of
performance, whereas those who are beset by self- doubts regard their arousal as a
debilitator. Physiological indicators of efficacy play an especially influential role in
health functioning and in athletic and other physical activities.

Perceived self-efficacy
It is concerned with people's beliefs in their capabilities to exercise control over their
own functioning and over events that affect their lives. Beliefs in personal efficacy
affect life choices, level of motivation, quality of functioning, resilience to adversity
and vulnerability to stress and depression. People's beliefs in their efficacy are
developed by four main sources of influence. They include mastery experiences,
seeing people similar to oneself manage task demands successfully, social persuasion
that one has the capabilities to succeed in given activities, and inferences from somatic
and emotional states indicative of personal strengths and vulnerabilities. Ordinary
realities are strewn with impediments, adversities, setbacks, frustrations and inequities.
People must, therefore, have a robust sense of efficacy to sustain the perseverant effort
needed to succeed. Succeeding periods of life present new types of competency
demands requiring further development of personal efficacy for successful
functioning. The nature and scope of perceived self-efficacy undergo changes
throughout the course of the lifespan.

III. ACTIVITY
Read and answer the following:
1. Evaluate your own learning or studying technique/s. In bullets, list down the
techniques you use and rate its effectivity from 1-10(10 being the highest)
Note:if you have less than 10 that is ok as long as it is yours). (10pts)
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PARTIDO STATE UNIVERSITY
Camarines Sur

2. Answer in 3 sentences only. After evaluating your own learning or studying

technique/s, what can you say about it? Is it effective? Does it ned
improvement? What do you plan to do knowing this now?(10pts)

3. Make a diagram that summarizes the different aspects of learning and goal-
setting (incorporate the concepts in the module’s lessons) to be able
to answer the question: “How can I achieve my goal as a student?” (15pts)

IV. SUGGESTED REFERENCES

J. Dunlonsky et al. “Improving Student’s Learning with Effective Learning Techniques:
Promising Directions from Cognitive and Educational Psychology,” Psychological Science in
the Public Interest 14, no. 1 (2013): 4-58.
Albert Bandura’s Self-Efficacy